Zonar has a distinct advantage in the telematics space: customers can reach a live human being 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Part of the reason Zonar excels in customer support, and why we were awarded Business Intelligence Group’s Excellence in Customer Service Award is due to Bobby Smith, our Senior Director of Customer Support and Experience.
Bobby Smith is the Senior Director of Customer Support and Experience at Zonar Systems, leading a large customer support team to achieve top tier customer satisfaction. Smith has been with Zonar for over a decade, advancing his career from a customer support representative to working his way up to a director, where he oversees customer strategy, department performance, and manages relationships with key executives and customers.
In his time at Zonar, Smith has managed and supported several projects to improve and advance Zonar’s excellent customer support standards and processes, including driving a new business approach for proactive customer support, creating a new Advocacy team, and significantly increasing customer retention rates to achieve extremely high rates of customer retention.
As a passionate leader in the company, Smith takes a collaborative customer-centric approach to meet and exceed customer expectations, while aligning with Zonar’s core mission to enhance the safety, performance, and success of customers.
Zonar’s customer success initiative is one of the most highly regarded in the fleet management technology industry. Smith and his team believe it’s not just about managing customer relationships 24 hours a day, 365 days per year — it’s about having empathy and understanding that their business and operational success often depend on the reliability of tools and connectivity, making Zonar’s customer support approach a differentiator amongst competitors.
As a customer success expert, Smith understands the role that relationships have in building an award-winning customer support department. Rather than viewing customer needs as a transactional call line, he prioritizes hands-on customer communications. Smith and his team go the extra mile in making the customer feel valued, whether that’s taking an extra phone call to fully understand an issue or meeting them in person to help on site.
Smith leads his team with compassion and transparency. He believes in a collaborative work environment where teammates from all levels are encouraged to participate in critical business conversations and share their perspective. Smith credits his effective leadership style and success to his “people-first” mindset and core values of respect, humility, and teamwork.
He is committed to empowering individuals on his team through a mentorship program. He acknowledges that the company runs best when everyone on the team is thriving. The mentorship program aims to create trainings for the next generation of product support engineers. To date, there are 100 participating mentors. This program has allowed Smith to recruit and promote employees that otherwise might have not had the opportunity to advance their careers. His non-biased approach to recruiting prioritizes willingness to learn over education levels and degrees.
In 2022, under Bobby’s leadership, Zonar’s excellent customer support and success was recognized by the Globee Sales and Customer Service Excellence Awards and Business Intelligence Group’s 2022 Excellence in Customer Service Award.
Chesapeake Public Schools tells us: “With a fleet of 583 buses, having customer experience team support has been ideal. When the Zonar customer experience team goes the extra mile to address our needs there are no traffic jams along the way.” – Dr. David Benson, Chesapeake Public Schools Transportation Director.
Zonar is here to help, all day, every day. We thank Bobby and the entire customer support team for their dedication!
